Posted by Jed Lewison on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 11:16 AM Pacific

Runaway train filled with chlorine in Las Vegas

'LAS VEGAS DODGED A BULLET': Chlorine-hauling tanker rolls free

It could have gone either way.

For a brief slice of time Wednesday morning, the difference between disaster and a normal day in Las Vegas was hitched to a runaway train tanker loaded with hazardous chlorine gas.

The tanker, which escaped the Arden train yard, located south of state Route 160, picked up speed on the downhill and cut a 20-mile swath through the urban heart of Clark County, racing west of the resort corridor and past densely populated neighborhoods around the Union Pacific tracks.

When I heard that an unmanned rail car carrying chlorine gas had rolled through the Las Vegas Valley yesterday, I figured that it had gone at a leisurely pace.

Boy, was I wrong: it hit 50 miles per hour!

It's hard to fathom the level of incompetence that someone must have to allow a train car filled with deadly gas to accidentally leave the station. It's a miracle that there weren't any trains coming in the opposite direction.

The car traveled about 20 miles on the tracks; according to the police, the entire incident lasted from 8.49am to 9.05am, sixteen minutes.

If the car were traveling at 50mph, it could only cover about 13 miles in those sixteen minutes. So either:

- the car was going faster than 50mph
- the police weren't notified until it had already gone 7 miles
- it didn't really go twenty miles

Scary.

Runaway train filled with chlorine in Las Vegas

'LAS VEGAS DODGED A BULLET': Chlorine-hauling tanker rolls free

It could have gone either way.

For a brief slice of time Wednesday morning, the difference between disaster and a normal day in Las Vegas was hitched to a runaway train tanker loaded with hazardous chlorine gas.

The tanker, which escaped the Arden train yard, located south of state Route 160, picked up speed on the downhill and cut a 20-mile swath through the urban heart of Clark County, racing west of the resort corridor and past densely populated neighborhoods around the Union Pacific tracks.

When I heard that an unmanned rail car carrying chlorine gas had rolled through the Las Vegas Valley yesterday, I figured that it had gone at a leisurely pace.

Boy, was I wrong: it hit 50 miles per hour!

It's hard to fathom the level of incompetence that someone must have to allow a train car filled with deadly gas to accidentally leave the station. It's a miracle that there weren't any trains coming in the opposite direction.

The car traveled about 20 miles on the tracks; according to the police, the entire incident lasted from 8.49am to 9.05am, sixteen minutes.

If the car were traveling at 50mph, it could only cover about 13 miles in those sixteen minutes. So either:

- the car was going faster than 50mph
- the police weren't notified until it had already gone 7 miles
- it didn't really go twenty miles

Scary.

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